Jesus Reconsidered

The central myth of christianity is the suffering and death of the alleged saviour, Jesus of Nazareth. Something in that story didn’t sit right with me, but I could never put my finger on it until today.

No, it wasn’t that the story has glaring holes – that was expected, and stories about other famous people of ages past, such as Odysseus or King Arthur also skip years of their lives and focus on the interesting parts. For a while I thought it was the way in which multiple legends of the area, originally attributed to various figures roughly in the same timeframe were merged together into the account of one man. Though that explains why no serious historians of the time mention Jesus. All of these and many other facts are interesting, but it didn’t give me a Heureka! moment.

Then, today, it dawned on me what’s wrong. The “suffering” part is such an unbelievable piece of arrogant, conceited piece of nonsense that I wonder how I could’ve missed it.

Jesus didn’t suffer. Really, what he experienced even according to the most biased source available (the bible) wasn’t a joyride, but even for a regular human being, it was a small bit of misery and doesn’t even compare to what real humans go through every day on this planet by the thousands. For a godlike being, it’s pure ridicule to even mention that little bit of inconvenience.

You think I am belittling the crucifiction there? Sure, that’s a horrible way to go. And yet he was neither the first nor the last, and mankind invented and applied quite a few more painful methods of execution. Now look at all the suffering that life deals out in spades and that passed Jesus clean by. What about the agony of rejected or lost love? People suffer for years under that, not a few hours. What about the loss of loved ones, family, kids, friends? What about the horrors of war? What about torture, disease and chronic pain? We know that both torture and some chronic pains can drive people insane – literally crack your mind because it simply can’t take it anymore. What about destitution? Living in fear of starvation every day? Or simply being in a situation without hope, stranded and desperate to the point where you start to cook and eat your friends, simply because you have to?

Let me ignore all the “god doesn’t even exist” that’s the real big bummer to it all. Even if the story were 100% truth and really happened exactly that way – that guy should shut up about human suffering, for he hasn’t even finished the aperitif.

I think I have found my personal answer. I find it utterly revolting that some people pray to a guy nailed to a cross when that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what human suffering entails. Frankly, he had it easy, compared to thousands if not millions of those who thank him for taking that walk in the park compared to what they endure.

The only miracle here is what incredibly resilient creatures we are. What an incredible ability we have to pick ourselves up again and keep going. That, more than any holy book or fake salvation story, is the good message that gives you hope.